FORCEFUL ➴ Feitan x Reader

III. Butterflies

"It's not that long of a story, and aren't you with enough time on your hands, Y/N?" Rune was looking over his shoulder, legs dangling as he effortlessly supported his body on the marble counter. I wished for the stone to crack and for the moss haired man to fall flat on his bottom. But life didn't seem to be listening to my wishes so, I sighed and broke the stare down to face Rie.

"When my second book reached massive fame, I was invited to an auction of sorts. It was a very exclusive event... That's where I met Ru... R-Rhubarb there." If only I could facepalm at that moment. I was so dumb, the more I had to talk about Rune the more I had to watch myself not to slip up.

Rune cracked up, laughing freely as returned to my side. "Isn't it adorable? Y/N's pet name for me is Rhubarb... why is that? Care to explain to your friend..."

"He... Well as you can see, his hair's green and he..." was covered in blood, his naked body was covered in blood. "was wearing a red suit." Yeah, that made sense... Rhubarb was a lucky word... somehow...

Rie giggled, her eyes scrunched up and she took a bit of time to compose herself. Time I spent glaring at Rune, whose gaze grew colder by the minute. "That's very fitting, Damien in red, must've been a funny thing to witness."

I shivered, "It. It was a sight." Unable to continue my story right away, as I played around with the truth to make it believable, I allowed Rie some time to review it, unfortunately.

"So, Damien is a popular one? Someone that was invited to a super exclusive auction? What were they auctioning?" Her orange eyes moved from me to Rune, as the silence continued.

"I wasn't invited. I'm not a celebrity or something of the sort, no."

"Yeah... he was working there that night, that's why he was wearing the red suit. You'd never catch him with such horrid colour combinations on his own volution." I took a deep breath, the quicker I diverted the conversation the better. "So yeah, I met him there, this Rhubarb looking kind of guy stood out. We got to chatting, as they auctioned off rare books, and became friends of sorts."

"Oh? Did you get many rare books?" My heart stopped beating but managed to keep my lips stretched in the semblance of a smile as I nudged her to move to the resting room.

"No. I only got one. A memoire about dangerous runes." I blinked, casting away the memories of the night, focusing on the present. The soft chairs, the grass like carpets the feeling of my own weight as I moved one foot in front of the other. I found myself sinking into the soft cushiony chaise lounge.

"Yes, I still hold the grudge... after all I was there to manage to save this unknown tiny book, Meridel, I was ready to pay my life's earnings and beyond for Meridel... but... When Y/N bought the first book they presented, I lost the chance to get Meridel out of that old book cage." Images swam around, overlapping reality with the expensive scenery of the auction house. There was nothing fresh and natural there, it was all opulence and wickedness.

"What was Meridel about?" Rie's voice asked, farther away than it actually was. I swallowed and blinked harder, several times. Pushing it all behind me. There was no way for me to know.

"Meridel was about the pure love for a younger sibling." My voice came out sounding empty, hollow of emotions and I kept blinking, but a tear escaped. "If I had known of such a book, I would've gotten it myself. I was new to the scene so... things just happened. That is, of course, of no avail to... Damien there, who lost his chance to get his book. No matter how often I apologise, he keeps bringing it up."

"Oh? Why wasn't it just a book? Can't you get it back?" Rie proposed with the sweetest of smiles. Rune who hadn't been sat yet, kicked the armchair in front of him. I jumped, scared, and his voice wasn't even his own when he spoke his last words for the night.

"They burnt half the library that night. There's no catalogue of which books survived, and it became more exclusive than it used to be." With that said he was out of the resting room.

"I feel as if I said something bad. Hope Damien isn't offended by anything..." Rie quipped.

I shook my head and rose to my feet, feeling my stability returning. "It was a bad subject to begin with, maybe I shouldn't have started talking about it. Well... I'm a tad tired. I hope you excuse me I think I'll rest for the day." My fingers trembled a bit when I rose my hand to calmly pat Rie's shoulder.

"Yeah, of course! I'll do a bit of roaming, discover some of the city. If I find something cool I'll write it down so we can visit it later!" She nodded, springing up from her own armchair and giving me a quick hug.

I smiled and waved at her. "That sounds lovely Rie, thank you. Have a nice walk."

"If you wake up earlier than expected and feeling ready for an adventure, call me!" She winked, waved at Marcus and was out of sight.

I took a deep breath, left the restroom, nodded at Marcus when he said that our luggage was already in our rooms and handed me a key with 4.96 embedded on the round golden tag. The matrix was definitely glitching, there were no way they could come up with these many coincidences.

I unlocked my room and met a beige cold gaze. "Rune."

"Y/N." His hands were on the pockets of his baggy white hoodie, so he tilted his head to point at the bed and sat there.

"It has been a while."

"Save me the pleasantries."

"Don't go around using my fake names and aliases."

"Don't go around with chocolatiers who happened to be the next targets of your murderous neighbour." My eyebrow rose, that was unexpected.

"Why's that?"

"It'll bring you bad luck."

> Author's Note: Well... what do you think?